Usual suspects

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The Philippines is keen to show the world it has become tough on
terrorists. But it is wading into murky waters, writes Connie
Levett.

THE soldiers came for Abdul Monair Saladin at 6.30am on July 13
four years ago. He was at home with his family, preparing for a
wedding later that day, on Basilan, an island stronghold of the
terrorist group Abu Sayyaf. The Philippine soldiers brought a
witness, wearing a mask, who surveyed the room and pointed to
Saladin.

"I asked the soldiers, 'Why are you arresting me? What have I
done?"' For the next three days he was interrogated about his
connections to Abu Sayyaf. When his father followed the soldiers to
protest his son's innocence, he, too, was arrested. Saladin was 25,
about to graduate as an engineer; he never did.

"They blindfolded me and tortured me, hit a nail in my head," he
says, pointing to his left temple. "I was asked if I was involved
in the children's kidnapping. I said, 'I know nothing, I am
studying."' He speaks through an interpreter at Camp Bagong Diwa, a
police base and prison complex on the outskirts of Manila.

His arrest in 2001 came 24 hours after the Philippines
Government announced a bounty, a minimum 50,000 pesos, for the
arrest of any Abu Sayyaf member. He is charged with 52 counts of
kidnapping teachers and children from Tumahubong Catholic school,
Basilan, on March 20, 2000. A guilty verdict means a likely death
sentence.

More than 125 Abu Sayyaf suspects are on trial, and not one
considers themselves guilty of any crime. "They believe what they
are doing is right and find justification in the killing," says
Peter Medalle, head of the state's prosecution team.

The Abu Sayyaf trials are the biggest this country has seen -
the harvest, say authorities, of a committed assault on the
terrorist group. But human rights activists are worried the
Government is more interested in showing the US how tough it can be
on terrorism than in whether it has arrested the right men. Pura
Calleja, a human rights lawyer representing most of the Abu Sayyaf
accused, said the military had to justify its budget and wanted to
benefit from the bounty. "It has to show Father [George] Bush that
the Government is doing something," she says. "Remember what Bush
said: 'He who is not with us is against us."'

The Philippine National Security Adviser, Norberto Gonzales,
acknowledges that since September 11, 2001, there has been "a
marked increase" in US interest in southern Philippines terrorist
connections.

Abu Sayyaf (Bearer of the Sword) is a radical Islamic group
formed in 1991 by Abdurajak Janjalani, a veteran of the 1980s
Afghanistan war and an associate of Osama bin Laden. Its main
purpose is to establish an Islamic state, based on sharia law, in
the southern Philippines, and it gained international notoriety in
2000-01 for a series of audacious and brutal kidnappings, some
ending in beheadings.

Gonzales believes that while the group's capacity has been
diminished, Abu Sayyaf is more dangerous than it was five years
ago. The religious objective is always far more dangerous than a
financial one.

An aggressive army campaign, helped by the US, has reduced the
group by half, to fewer than 500 members. Its leader, Janjalani's
brother Khadaffy, is in hiding in central Mindanao, separated from
his foot soldiers on Jolo island. But a Manila-based risk analyst,
Peter Wallace, says Abu Sayyaf will survive until poverty in the
southern Philippines is addressed. "It is easy to get youths to
join if you can offer a gun, food and a place to sleep."

On March 14 and 15 this year, an attempted jailbreak from Camp
Bagong Diwa by Abu Sayyaf prisoners ended with 26 prisoners and
four guards dead. The senior prisoners, commanders Robot and
Global, were shot, allegedly in battle.

A report by the Philippines Alliance of Human Rights Advocates
found the leaders were shot after the jailbreak was contained. The
report says: "[Global] was ordered to run. When he did, they shot
him." A prisoner was ordered to carry Robot to the second floor and
then crawl away. "When the detainee heard shots and tried to look
back, one of the [special forces] stepped on his head."

There had been allegations of collusion between Abu Sayyaf and
senior political and military figures during the hostage crises of
2000-01, in which more than 180 people were seized. An American
hostage, Gracia Burnham, who was kidnapped from Dos Palmas resort
in Palawan and held for more than a year, spoke of this collusion
in her book, In the Presence of My Enemies.

She claimed ransom negotiations broke down because Abu Sayyaf
and a Philippine general could not agree on a split of the
multimillion-dollar windfall. The general wanted 50 per cent, Abu
Sayyaf was thinking 20 per cent.

The surviving Abu Sayyaf prisoners make up more than 10 per cent
of inmates at Camp Bagong Diwa but the warden, Danilo Abelinde, is
confident there will be no further unrest. "I have told them [if
there is trouble]: not one, I will kill them all."

The trials were moved to Manila, and protection provided, to
encourage witnesses to give evidence against Abu Sayyaf. But
Calleja says her clients have no money to bring witnesses to
challenge the prosecution's claims. "Most of my clients are angry
at Abu Sayyaf. Some have been victims of Abu Sayyaf."

The six Abu Sayyaf suspects interviewed by the Herald
claim they are innocent, and that they have been tortured in
custody. The group includes a former Philippines military academy
cadet who is now an Islamic teacher in Zamboanga City; a Muslim
primary school teacher from Basilan; a Filipino-Chinese Christian
businessman from Jolo; and two brothers from Basilan, who claim
their grandfather was beheaded by Abu Sayyaf in 1997. The brothers,
Pepito and Divino Buenbrazo, have converted from Christianity to
Islam in detention. They say Abu Sayyaf has warned their family in
Basilan not to try to contact them.

"Most of these people are not even in Abu Sayyaf," Calleja says,
claiming they were arrested as part of the July 2001 bounty
crackdown.

Lieutenant-General Alberto Braganza, head of Southcom, the
southern Philippines military command, defends the arrests. "We do
not arbitrarily arrest people; it is based on intelligence sources
and revelations from arrested [suspects]." He also dismisses the
torture claims. "I have not received reports of torture on
Mindanao; perhaps this is mere propaganda. There is a strict
enforcement and respect for human rights in Mindanao."

There is little public sympathy for the suspects. "Abuse of
suspects is routine," says Sheila Coronel, of the Philippine Centre
for Investigative Journalism. "They do it routinely to Christian
suspects; how much more likely for Muslim terrorism suspects?"

In the bungled rescue attempt of the last Dos Palmas hostages,
the Philippines army shot all three. Burnham survived; her husband,
Martin, and Filipina Ediborah Yap, died. "We never forgot who the
bad guys were and who the good guys were," Burnham told her
rescuers. "I don't think of you as the bad guys."

Good guys, bad guys - it's the language of George Bush's war on
terrorism. But in the Philippines, nothing is black and white.
Corruption is rife, poverty endemic and justice is for those who
can afford it. If the Government wants to win this war it must do
more than arrest the usual suspects.

June 22, 2001: Three severed heads are found, thought to
belong to Philippine soldiers.

July 5, 2000: Talipao, Basilan, 13 Filipino evangelists
from Jesus Miracle Crusade kidnapped after they went to Abu Sayyaf
camp to pray over the Sipadan hostages. Rescued by soldiers October
2, 2000.

August 28, 2000: Jolo, American Jeffrey Schilling, a
convert to Islam, is abducted during a visit to Abu Sayyaf camp to
explain group's misrepresentation of the Koran. Threatened with
beheading, rescued April 12, 2001.

May 27, 2001: Dos Palmas resort, Palawan, 20 hostages,
including three Americans, kidnapped for up to 376 days. American
Guillermo Sobero beheaded, two hostages killed by army during
rescue operation.

December 2001: US military advisers arrive in the
southern Philippines. Balikatan 02, a joint military exercise
between US and Philippines troops, is launched.

May 29, 2002: US offers a reward of up to $US5 million
for the arrest or conviction of five leaders of Abu Sayyaf.